even by Crispin's standards...

[SigourneyHoward]

Extremely vocal intervention by CB following a jury finding his fellow Conservative Wakefield MP guilty of sexual assault....

twitter.com/CrispinBlunt/status/1513603624164859918

Given the allegation about his time in Pakistan, which seems to be something that people in the Foreign Office knew about, you have to wonder about political vetting procedures. Politics seems to shrug off some serious red flags.

Worrying in CB doubling down that he thinks that something being 14 years in the past means it’s not worthy of investigation/prosecution. Wasn’t he a previous justice minister or something… does that mean operation Yew tree shouldn’t have happened?

Also, even if the actual assault was not that severe, if the boy was not dragged to the room - the plying with alcohol, the pornography, by the defendant’s own admission -philosophical and theological discussions about sexuality, unsolicited to a bewildered 15 year old in his own bedroom where he should have been safe… it certainly follows a pattern beginning with G. This has nothing to do with the sexuality of the defendant at all, apart from possibly the trusting/naïvety of the parents allowing him to sleep there which presumably most parents would not allow with a daughter for privacy/dignity reasons.

CB must surely know 101 of safeguarding, that most abuse happens in homes by people known to the child, and that abusers come from all walks of life and can walk amongst us with no outward sign.

I don’t think he’s fit to hold office if he can get that wrong. Not to mention his attitude towards women.

Wasn’t he a previous justice minister or something… does that mean operation Yew tree shouldn’t have happened?

Yes I was wondering what he thought about Savile etc.

Apparently, according to quite a few media outlets, CCHQ had told Blunt he either deleted the tweet or would face some real consequences. Including having the whip withdrawn. Has he gone too far?

news.sky.com/story/crispin-blunt-government-distances-itself-from-mp-over-his-comments-following-jury-conviction-of-imran-ahmad-khan-12588399

mirax - Exactly, it’s not minor at all. But it’s indicative of the way some people lose their minds over their pet causes.

I must say I'm a bit rereading about the sheer number of MPs convicted of various crimes who are still sitting MPs. I'd forgotten them. I know nobody should be punished for ever for crimes but there do seem to be quite a few.

[quote SamphirethePogoingStickerist]Apparently, according to quite a few media outlets, CCHQ had told Blunt he either deleted the tweet or would face some real consequences. Including having the whip withdrawn. Has he gone too far?

news.sky.com/story/crispin-blunt-government-distances-itself-from-mp-over-his-comments-following-jury-conviction-of-imran-ahmad-khan-12588399[/quote]
All about the optics not the fact he clearly supports child sex offenders 🙄 glad the DM has picked it up…

Having said that all political parties are dreadful at vetting candidates for both general and local elections

As we saw in the case of Jamie Wallace, whose previous history is eyebrow-raising, to say the least.

I wonder what Blunt was thinking of. Did he imagine there'd be a rush of people agreeing with him?

Did he imagine there'd be a rush of people agreeing with him?

In my view I think it’s more about boundary pushing. If he can get away with posting in defence of a child sex offender (albeit with a few disapproving tweets and an uncomfortable silence from his fellow MPs), then he’s made it somewhat acceptable for MPs to do so. It’s all hiding in plain sight, eroding the boundaries and creating a culture where people are reluctant to intervene in sex crimes if the perpetrator is LGBTQSJFHDHWS+

Apparently Crispin Blunt posted something on his website as well as the tweet. Now he's deleted both. It looks very bad from an ex Justice Minister to talk about a miscarriage of justice.

He has jeopardised his own mate's appeal btw because this media blow up may bring out other victims

This has happened already. One of the other witnesses in this case only came forward once Imran Khan was named.

While trials and convictions for sexual assault rates are minuscule in comparison to the actual number of assaults, it's worth remembering that Charlie Elphicke (ex MP) was convicted for sexual assault against two women. Several other MPs wrote 'references' for him which ended similarly badly.

twitter.com/CrispinBlunt/status/1513794463231057922?cxt=HHwWhIC5veeCioIqAAAA

Blunt retracting his statement

It can't be emphasised enough that so often when the behaviour of these men aggressively removing women's rights and child safeguarding is examined, you find increasingly dodgy behaviour. Dismissing a child abuse conviction as homophobia is seriously dodgy.

Stepping down as chair of APPG as well.

To quote an often-missed Mumsnet legend with:

"There are no scared castes."

None.

When someone tells you who they are, believe them.

@PronounssheRa

twitter.com/CrispinBlunt/status/1513794463231057922?cxt=HHwWhIC5veeCioIqAAAA

Blunt retracting his statement

Blardy blah, he’s made his true feelings perfectly clear. If the Labour candidate in his constituency had her/his wits about them, they would be printing copies of the original statement to post through as many doors as possible.

His apology is a very 'Priti Patel' type one - 'I'm sorry what I said upset you'. He's not actually sorry he said what he said, just that some stupid people got upset!

So now he is saying he didn't mean it.

He is just so concerned about LGBT rights that he supported a sex offender.

When you add up all his ranting, its really is coming across as though he thinks biological men that are part of the lgbt community should be allowed to do what ever they want and should be immune for criticism or the law. He isn't even trying to hide it

So he's withdrawn the statement and "apologise for any offence" that's not really an apology or a man realising he was defending the indefensible

I don’t believe you can go from supporting a convicted child sex offender with the voracity he did, to ‘seeing the light’ in a matter of hours.

He’s sorry. Well that’s clearly good enough.

It looks very bad from an ex Justice Minister to talk about a miscarriage of justice.

It's clear that a member of the Government can't be seen to undermine the judiciary, but in principle I don't think there's a problem with a backbench MP calling attention to a potential miscarriage of justice, is there? Although I'd like to see somewhat less hyperbole and a much more deserving case... I think it's the particular case that's the problem here, not the principle. But feel free to contradict me.

It was interesting to see exactly the same emotional energy deployed towards this as he normally directs to women getting in the way of "trans rights".

He hasn't said he's sorry he defended him. He's said he's sorry that people were upset that he defended him.

[quote SamphirethePogoingStickerist]Apparently, according to quite a few media outlets, CCHQ had told Blunt he either deleted the tweet or would face some real consequences. Including having the whip withdrawn. Has he gone too far?

news.sky.com/story/crispin-blunt-government-distances-itself-from-mp-over-his-comments-following-jury-conviction-of-imran-ahmad-khan-12588399[/quote]
He shouldn't be allowed to just delete the twitter post and have fewer consequences. I think he has gone too far, but it will be very annoying if they try to sweep this under the rug.

I’m sure Lisa Townsend, Surrey PCC, is far too good a person to gloat over this…

Whilst it is impossible to unsay what has been said, he did need to at least withdraw the serious accusations about the standards of justice in this country.

His credibility is in tatters

He even admitted to only watching some of the trial.